A53708:156
Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ
Meditations and discourses on the glory of Christ, in his person, office, and grace with the differences between faith and sight applied unto the use of them that believe / by the late Reverend John Owen, D.D.
London: printed by B.A., 1691
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Chapter 3: The Glory of Christ in the Mysterious Constitution of his Person.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
THIS is that Glory whose Beams are so illustrious, as that the blind World cannot bear the Light and Beauty of them. Multitudes begin openly to deny this Incarnation of the Son of God, this Personal Union of God and Man in their distinct Natures. They deny that there is either Glory or Truth in it; and it will ere long appear, it begins already to evidence it self what greater Multitudes there are, who yet do not, who yet dare not openly reject the Doctrine of it, who in Truth believe it not, nor see any Glory in it. Howbeit this Glory, is the Glory of our Religion, the Glory of the Church, the sole Rock whereon it is built, the only Spring of present Grace, and future Glory.
THIS is that Glory which the Angels themselves desire to behold, the Mystery whereof they bow down to look into, 1 Pet. 1. 12. So was their Desire represented by the Cherubims in the most holy Place of the Tabernacle; for they were a Shadow of the Ministry of Angels in the Church. The Ark and Mercy Seat were a Type of Christ in the Discharge of his Office; and these Cherubims were made standing over them, as being in Heaven above; but earnestly looking down upon them in a Posture of Reverence and Adoration. So they did of Old, and in their present Contemplation of it consists no small part of their Eternal Blessedness.
HEREON depends the Ruin of Satan and his Kingdom. His Sin, so far as we can conceive, consisted of two Parts (1.) His Pride against the Person of the Son of God, by whom he was created. For by him were all things created that are (or were when first created) in Heaven, whether they be Thrones or Dominions, or Principalities or Powers, Col. 1. 16. Against him he lifted up himself, which was the Beginning of his Transgression. (2.) Envy against Mankind made in the Image of God, of the Son of God the First-born. This completed his Sin; nothing was now left whereon to act his Pride and Malice. Unto his Eternal Confusion and Ruin God in infinite Wisdom unites both the Natures he had sinned against, in the one Person of the Son, who was the first Object of his Pride and Malice. Hereby his Destruction is attended with Everlasting Shame in the Discovery of his Folly, wherein he would have contended with infinite Wisdom, as well as Misery, by the Powers of the two Natures united in one Person.